Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 27, 1995 TAG: 9501270074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS AND DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
One-fifth of riverboat revenue - $16 million a year, according to casino operators - would be placed in the hands of a 32-member authority that would stretch along the Interstate 81 corridor from Harrisonburg to Bristol.
The Western Virginia Economic Development Authority could spend the money as its members see fit to help existing industries and attract new companies to the region.
Similar deals have been offered to other regions of the state in an attempt by casino advocates to build support among lawmakers - and potentially voters - from around Virginia.
The pitch has yet to persuade Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, a Roanoke Democrat who fears the state will not be able to control casinos once they get a foothold in Virginia.
But Del. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Warm Springs, said he would take a closer look at the bill if it benefitted his district.
The Western Virginia amendment is expected to be offered Monday during a House General Laws subcommittee meeting. The floating casino bill - House Bill 2400 - would pave the way for a statewide referendum similar to the process used for the state lottery and pari-mutuel horse tracks.
The regional authority would include four lawmakers, four local government officials, three representatives of economic development groups, two college representatives and eight other citizens.
The proposed legislation gives the authority wide latitude in spending the funds. One limit, however, is that the authority would have to spend one-quarter of its casino gambling take on tourism.
The tourism provision was inserted at the request of Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, a riverboat lobbyist from Roanoke who advocates taking advantage of the region's rugged terrain to promote "mountain tourism."
Jealousy of the Tar Heel state is the Gov. George Allen administration's newest weapon in pushing elimination of a gross receipts tax on Virginia businesses.
Economic development officials have come up with a list of six businesses, involving about 1,700 jobs and almost $200 million in investment, that they say were lost to North Carolina over the last three years. The losses, the officials say, are at least partly because of the state's business, professional and occupational license tax.
The administration is declining to name the businesses on privacy grounds. But in a noon speech Thursday, Allen warned that "the rulers in the Virginia legislature" are giving North Carolina "a competitive advantage over Virginia" if they reject his tax plan.
A committee of the National Federation of Independent Business, the group to which Allen spoke, endorsed his plan after the speech. The group represents 13,000 small businesses.
Allen's plan to curtail family life education classes in Virginia schools met a setback Thursday in the Senate Education Committee.
The group, in what appeared to be a unanimous voice vote, approved a bill making sex education classes mandatory statewide unless a parent withdraws permission in writing.
That's the current practice, but the provision has never been set in Virginia law.
The Allen administration favors a different tack: giving individual school divisions the option of dropping out of family life education, and requiring parents to "opt in" or give written permission before their children take sex education classes.
The committee took no action on the administration bill, sponsored by Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach.
Democratic Sen. Louise Lucas of Portsmouth read the Old Testament lesson. Republican Del. Robert McDonnell of Virginia Beach made the introductions. And Gov. George Allen said Thursday morning's Commonwealth Prayer Breakfast could be a model for restoring unity to the viciously partisan General Assembly session.
"This is the most useful and unifying meeting I've been to," the Republican governor told several hundred prayerful guests in the Richmond Marriott ballroom. "Maybe this will be the start of something new."
Allen's call for unity had its limits, however, as evidenced by an off-the-cuff joke he made regarding homosexuals.
An earlier speaker had reminisced about meeting the woman he would marry at such a prayer breakfast, and then pointed to his 13-year-old son and quipped that he might do the same. When Allen took the podium, he told the boy not to be in such a hurry.
And besides, the governor said, when he looked at the boy's table, "the table was full of men. That's not the type of spouse you want."
As the crowd laughed, Allen added: "This is at least the type of place you can say that and people won't chastise you."
That set the audience to applauding, including Lucas, and Allen gleefully pointed out that he had caught her agreeing with him.
A perennial attempt to allow local school districts to begin the school year before Labor Day has again died in a Senate committee.
The proposal has been made virtually every year since 1986, when a law mandating that schools open after Labor Day was passed.
Sen. Elliott Schewel, D-Lynchburg, proposed the repeal to the Senate Education and Health Committee on Thursday, arguing that it makes sense to allow school systems to set their own calendars.
But opponents said repealing the law would hurt business and tourism. They said the law permits families to take vacations over Labor Day and allows students to work the entire summer season at amusement parks.
Supporters of Schewel's failed bill said education should take precedence over economic development.
Staff writer Greg Schneider and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995
by CNB